Cards Tied For First: A no-frills blog dedicated to discussing topics related to the 11-time World Series Champions

Friday, May 3, 2013

Bloggers at the ballpark

Bloggers at the Ballpark - part I

Once again this year, the St. Louis Cardinals have been gracious enough to invite some of us blogger types to join them for an afternoon. Honestly, "gracious" isn't even the word. It's unbelievable how well the Cardinals organization has treated us--we are truly blessed & fortunate.

This past Sunday morning, a modest group of us gathered in the conference room in the administrative offices of Busch to spend some time with GM John Mozeliak, team President, Bill DeWitt III, and others. Public Relations specialist, Lindsey Weber & Director of Public Relations and Civic Affairs, Ron Watermon were among those who hosted us for an hour or so in the conference room area.

We were treated to an update on some of the on-the-field-related things from Mozeliak, and DeWitt brought us up to speed on some of the more operational aspects of the organization, including Ballpark Village. After we were treated to these brief updates, both gentlemen took questions from the group. Most of those questions were decent, and at no point were we abruptly asked to leave, so we've got that going for us.

There were also presentations given by Stephanie Spargur, director of retail and Alex Eusebio, master executive ninja chef of all things delicious. Stephanie showed off some of the new looks available at the team store at Busch Stadium, some of which are exclusively available at the ballpark (as it should be!). Eusebio talked about some of the delectable foods we'd be able to find later that afternoon in our suite, while taking in the Cards/Bucs contest. He used words that almost made me squeal like a schoolgirl right then and there: "Four-hand nachos". The name, he explained, is derived for the exact reason you think it was. Unless you're really into horses, and think that this is a description of how tall this order of nachos is.

On top of it all, I got to spend it with my wife and many of my fellow bloggers. Imagine a game night on twitter or bonfyre, and being able to take in a game with all those folks that you interact with regularly. Pretty great stuff.

World-class hospitality, amazing food, great friends, and free beer. But that wasn't even my favorite part of the day. Those two things were the candles on the icing on the cake, and I can't wait to share those with you.